Professor Mamas - it's 2008! - Page 3

[rock_dr]

Originally Posted by emikey

Rock-Dr., you'd be welcome!! - though seriously, I'm not "out" to anyone but the chairs yet, so don't mention it if you know anyone in my college. With those stats, I can see why you started the moms group! One of the benefits, I suppose, of being in the humanities - lots of women in the dept, and more babies. Most of my colleagues with little kids are women, though not all (and some are 2-colleague couples). When we move buildings I want to set up some toys in the lounge. And the response to my news was, "let's have a kids party for the department and take a big picture of all of them!" I think that's a good sign.

no worries, I won't blab. and the kids party idea IS a good sign!!

[mamawanabe]

Hi, I am brand new untenured assistant prof of english at private urban school with a very supportive department. Love the school and the students, but the work load is killing me, and I didn't get a bit of research done last semester except for a conference paper.

All through grad school I played around at mothering.com (and urbanbaby.com) as compensation for it not being the right time for babies. Now I'm 36 and in ernest about getting pregnant this spring. Wish me luck.

[mamawanabe]

Originally Posted by kerc

I tend to set the timer for personal stuff first. Check my personal emails, read the paper, etc. Give myself 10-15 minutes in the morning to do that. Then as I'm working through the day i do the same thing when I take a break -- give myself 10-15 minutes to just dork around on the internet.

As far as work email -- i get a boat load of it, most of it can reasonably be discarded but I need to check it on a regular basis as there are important tidbits to be gleamed. So I do the same thing -- set a timer and only devote as much time as I have. My work is really compartmentalized because I'm only a part time faculty member, but I think the same system would work.

I also make a rule to get some writing done before email (work email that is). I tend to check work-related email in the second hour of my work day.

Interesting about putting off work email. It is a time suck, especially if you attend to it too carefully. I tried to talk my students into calling me at the office with questions instead of e-mailing (so much quicker), but they never did. I'd get e-mails from them during my office hours.

[Geofizz]

D ~ I've been thinking you a lot this week. I hope you made it through the week.

Originally Posted by emikey

yeah, but it's like, "oh I should check my work email first. and my gmail. and ask moxie. and the nytimes. oh wait, it's 11:00!" I think I need to work first, and not check email at all. It's so hard.

My solution is to write first. I get up at 5:30 am, make coffee, and set my timer to write until 6:05 am (30 minutes). I then check my email, try to read a paper, then check MDC dingos and professors, wrapping up by 7:15 to get the kids ready for school.

I can't really do a timer in my office without feeling dumb, but you can put them on your computer. They're easy to find as free downloads. I have something called Mac API timer. It's great.

[namaste_mom]

emikey - I hope it does come across as coherent, but then again, I don't really care.

Lynn56 - It is not really the teaching that concerns me, it is the research requirement. It is hard to think originally when I have trouble figuring out what to wear each morning. I just sit in my office and nothing really gets done.

Wendy and CJ - thanks, I need your positive thoughts.

[emikey]

mamawanabe - welcome and good luck!

slightly off topic - my work emails require almost nothing of me (except the ones from students), and this kind of worries me. Shouldn't people be beating down my door - I mean, occasionally showing up - with requests to do book reviews, be on panels, sit on committees that didn't exist when we were assigning committees, and various other time sinks? What does it say about me that they don't?

Then again, just about everything worries me, so I should just stop now.

[Ana_Isabel]

I DID IT!!!!

Submitted an NSF grant despite:
1) having no childcare available over break (X Husband was two states away with his new girlfriend)

2) having X husband cancel his weekend with our son, the weekend, the ONLY weekend I had to catch up on work!

Hooray!!!! It drained the life out of me, and it really came down to the wire, but I did it, I am learning that creative thinking will be my bridge to tenure as a single mom. When X husband cancelled the night before his visit, I called a gazillion grad students...and prevailed. Tomorrow starts our new semester; I'm exhausted; but at least I can start it knowing this grant is in just in time to report in our yearly evaluations.

I had the dean sign off on the transmittal form on Friday and a dear colleague of mine (single male) said to me "You know it's best to have the entire proposal written before asking the dean to sign off on it". Yeah, well the day you put yourself in my shoes, with a toddler and no family, we'll see how often you submit your grant proposals days before their due. Sorry, just a mini rant.

[rock_dr]

Originally Posted by Ana_Isabel

I DID IT!!!!

YOU GO!! That's awesome.

Emikey - you might 'strategically' volunteer - I wouldn't put out a blanket 'keep me busy' request but for example if there is a panel or a particular service activity that would be interesting and beneficial to you, you could drop some hints. I did that and am now an 'editor' for a major pub in my field. I'm not really reviewing that many more papers but it looks good and keeps me up to date on goings-on.

[Geofizz]

Go Ana_Isabel! You ROCK woman! (and saying that you rock is the highest form of compliment from a geologist).

emikey, ditto: I'm sitting on an NSF panel because I told the program director I wanted to better understand how the process worked. The fact that I served on the committee goes on my dossier, not the fact that I invited myself.

[XanaduMama]

Hi!

I'm ABD in English, currently on the job market and 7 months pregnant with #2...life is stressful. I have campus visits at 2 *great* prospects, next week and the week after, so I'm currently (um, when not procrastinating on MDC) hard at work on the job talk.

Any tips for campus interviews? Meetings with deans? Grad students? Job talks and Q&A?

I'm not worried about the very obvious pregnancy being a negative issue, but thoughts on how this will play or affect logistics during my visits would be helpful too.

Happy 2008 and new semester!

[dulce_mami]

Great job, Ana_Isabel, indeed you prevailed!!!

[rock_dr]

Originally Posted by XanaduMama

Hi!
Any tips for campus interviews? Meetings with deans? Grad students? Job talks and Q&A?

i won't try to cover the whole thing but one quick thing I did right on my last interview was I nailed the 'elevator talk' - ie someone asks you what you are working as you enter an elevator, and you have a brief but compelling synopsis that is done by the time you reach the __th floor. In other words, really thinking about 2-3 minute versus 5-10 minute versus much more detailed descriptions of my research, and also thinking about how to revise those for experts in my field vs the dean from another school vs grad students, etc. I thought I could wing this (who knows my research better than me?), and did so in 3 other interviews, but actually really thinking and even practicing a bit before hand really helped. I did NOT assume that every faculty member I spoke to had read my resume (or at least was very familiar with it), and it turns that I was correct! so having those 'talks' ready was useful.

I wasn't pregnant at the time, but I still made sure to pack protein and energy snacks and water in my briefcase thingy. meals are not so much about eating and I got hungry.

oh, and review your schedule carefully. To make sure you have enough breaks planned, especially before your talk(s). I noticed on mine that a certain faculty member wasn't on my list to speak to and I specifically asked him to be added because I wanted to talk about some collaborative research. Turns out he didn't think we would have anything in common, so didn't sign up, but has ended up being a very strong supporter and I think that swayed him during the hiring process.

nuff for now.

[kaybee]

Originally Posted by XanaduMama

I'm not worried about the very obvious pregnancy being a negative issue, but thoughts on how this will play or affect logistics during my visits would be helpful too.

I interviewed while 29 weeks pregnant (so very obviously pregnant). One thing that helped logistically is that I did mention in one of the early conversations I was having with one of the faculty members that yes, as is obvious, I am pregnant. Basically, it gave them permission to not have to ignore the obvious elephant in the room (legally, they can't ask). Then they were great about giving me extra breaks, having me wait at the bottom of the stairs while they ran up and found who I was meeting with next, etc. And I got some good information about day cares, schools, family parks, and so on.

And the usual: take lots of bathroom breaks, bring along lots of snacks, drink lots of water, etc.

[rock_dr]

bump. page three?! surely not.

So the dept just discussed my last informal review before tenure (have to submit this spring so it will basically look the same, plus hopefully 2 more papers ). All signs are good!

[crwilson]

Originally Posted by XanaduMama

Hi!

I'm ABD in English, currently on the job market and 7 months pregnant with #2...life is stressful. I have campus visits at 2 *great* prospects, next week and the week after, so I'm currently (um, when not procrastinating on MDC) hard at work on the job talk.

Any tips for campus interviews? Meetings with deans? Grad students? Job talks and Q&A?

I'm not worried about the very obvious pregnancy being a negative issue, but thoughts on how this will play or affect logistics during my visits would be helpful too.

Happy 2008 and new semester!

Congratulations Sarah! How are interviews going?

[LoveOhm]

I am not a professor mama... I am a single student mama with one dd & I am currently researching grad school options with intentions of becoming a professor. The other thread gave me great insight but because I was not a professor and it was soooo huge, I did not post.

In 2008 expect a few questions from me as I begin this journey...

And as a thought since there is a fair amount of professor mamas on here why not have a new thread each month, like they do for the kids (i.e. Professor Mamas January 2008) that was it never gets too intimidating. Just an idea....

Thanks.

Shante'

[~minnow~]

I'm an ABD grad student with a 4 month old.

I want to start attending one of the reading groups where professors/grad students share their chapters. The first one of the semester is next Monday. An open call was issued: "Everyone is welcome." I'd have to bring DD. My plan, providing she's in a reasonable mood, is just to show up. What do you think?

Before I had her, I thought I'd be very bold about bringing her wherever, but now that she's here I'm a lot more reserved and intimidated than I thought. I feel tempted to "ask permission," but I'm not sure who I'd ask and if I like setting up that dynamic. Your thoughts are appreciated!

[athansor]

Hi everyone!
I got some very good news today, I passed my professional engineering exam!!!!! I'm now a P.E.!!! It's been killing me waiting for the score, I took the exam back in October, and for some reason there was a delay in grading one of the disciplines (mine, of course). All the other grades were released in mid-December, but ours were just posted this morning.
I passed, though, so that's what matters!!

In other news, I've got a job offer coming in, had one interview that is likely not to result in an offer (unless their offer to someone else is turned down), and will hear more about an other possibility next week. I'm also in the running for one more, and have two applications coming up for review next week. Yikes...it's really hard right now to figure out what to do.

[Geofizz]

Wow, Ath, that's great! How are the dual career issues working out at each place?

Is it typical that grad students have this impression that they have to learn everything there is to know about the field before they can start thinking about their own research? I've got two that won't even get started because they keep coming to me with "well, I want to finish reading this textbook first." Then again, I have another that won't read anything. Argh. I'm finding that running a group is the toughest part of the job. Finding the balance between "do this, then do that..." and "go figure out how to do it yourself" is a struggle for me.

D, how are you doing?

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Is it typical that grad students have this impression that they have to learn everything there is to know about the field before they can start thinking about their own research? I've got two that won't even get started because they keep coming to me with "well, I want to finish reading this textbook first." Then again, I have another that won't read anything. Argh. I'm finding that running a group is the toughest part of the job. Finding the balance between "do this, then do that..." and "go figure out how to do it yourself" is a struggle for me.

That was me eight years ago. more later. meltdown in progress.